Got the Star Trek Select Kirk and Spock today. And, frankly, I think they deserve their own thread since they aren't related to Into Darkness.

Oh man, I am going to have to eat some crow on these guys. When they first showed the concept of these, I was very skeptical. Why forgo articulation in the legs? The dioramas looked cool, but why cut articulation? The more pictures I saw the more I warmed to them, but was far from convinced. Did I want to buy these? The truth is, I grew up with TNG, and though I enjoy the original series I have never bought a ton of the merch with them. I passed on most of the Playmates of the original crew. Same with DST/Art Asylum's offerings. But I decided to give these a go.

I'm so glad I did. I've had a total blast with these figures. I really think everyone is going to get one heck of a kick out of these.

All the pictures here are just the two Select sets. I didn't buy the TRU ones. But just in these two sets you have an AMAZING amount of options.

Spock is the crowning achievement here. The only thing he's missing is the Vulcan Salute hand, and I imagine if Selects take off we'll get another Spock one day that can include that. I'm not sure if one of the hands from past DST figures would work? I'll check that out.

The Horta base is incredibly well realized. I do miss the eggs. But it's a small thing to lose. He looks great interacting with it in a variety of ways.

The alternate head sculpt is awesome for all kinds of poses and scenes. It makes me wish Kirk had another head even more. But what we are getting here is so phenomenal that softens the blow.

Nothing prepares you for how HUGE the diorama with Kirk is. It's incredibly well detailed and painted. I love the swappable cardboard backdrop. A really clever way to approach this.

Can I just say, I think this might be the best Kirk head sculpt ever? I know not everyone has loved it, but I really see Shatner in there. More than any other action figure I can think of.

I'm officially sold on the solid legs, btw. These figures are just so much more dynamic and exciting than even the past DST figures I've bought. I compare the energy with these to the TNG and Wrath figures I just got. There's just no comparison. It's like the best of action figures and statues combined. I'm blown away by how much I like this.

Just a comparison (I have no TOS figures from AA/DST) to show you how much more natural and dynamic you can get these figures compared to past figures.

I don't want to overload this with pics, but I had to show more. Again, if you want to see a few more (or see these much larger, I uploaded them at almost full res) click the link above.

Final thoughts? Part of me thinks these are almost TOO good. What do I mean? Well, I am hoping Picard comes with some extra hands ands stuff. Or at least that his torso is made like these so future TNG figures can swap parts with him. The dioramas, the extra parts and the sheer scale of the HUGE amount of awesome that comes with these is so incredibly impressive. I hope they keep it up with Picard. I'm already loving the Borg Base and half Borg after being a bit skeptical of them. But if the final figure likeness turns out like these, then he'll be a must-have. I just hope they are being conservative with what they are showing of him so they can show us more, not less, and avoid the disappointment some have felt when certain pieces were cut from these. But let me tell you, there's no reason to be disappointed by these at all. To offer these with all these parts for $25 (I got mine for $20 and they are pretty readily available at this price) is pretty amazing.

So, the legs swap too? These are awesome! Two of my favorite stories are depicted as well. They would look awesome next to my Enterprise model. The TRU ones do not have the bigger bases, correct?

Yep! So basically between the two sets you get four legs to work with - standing up straight, crouching, hunched over and kicking. Kirk's are the most specific to a given pose. The TRU ones do not have the bigger bases. They just have the rocky bases and both come with phaser hands, which the Kirk figure does not here (but you can just steal Spock's like I did). Someone combined those rocky bases with the Horta display, though, and they looked nice. I thought about getting the TRU ones (an extra Spock so that both Spock and Kirk could have the same legs) but thought better of it after I opened these as there really was enough options just in the two sets.

I just got done marathon-ing through Enterprise, then jumped to Star Trek (the JJ Abrams movie), then watched Journey to Babel (original Star Trek).

It's amazing how much of Enterprise and JJ Abram's movie hinge on Journey to Babel. All the young Spock stuff in JJ's Star Trek was spoken of in Journey to Babel, and Enterprise is almost a prequel to Journey to Babel.

I just got in the Trek Select figures, and the DST Enterprise B. They are awesome. The B's sounds, however, are only from the one scene, so there is a lot of Harriman's massive FAIL. And Kirk pwning him. Very scene specific. I love that the DST Klingon Bird of Prey has alot of Chang's dialogue from ST 6. 'Cry havoc!!!'.

I just got done marathon-ing through Enterprise, then jumped to Star Trek (the JJ Abrams movie), then watched Journey to Babel (original Star Trek).

It's amazing how much of Enterprise and JJ Abram's movie hinge on Journey to Babel. All the young Spock stuff in JJ's Star Trek was spoken of in Journey to Babel, and Enterprise is almost a prequel to Journey to Babel.

I just got in the Trek Select figures, and the DST Enterprise B. They are awesome. The B's sounds, however, are only from the one scene, so there is a lot of Harriman's massive FAIL. And Kirk pwning him. Very scene specific. I love that the DST Klingon Bird of Prey has alot of Chang's dialogue from ST 6. 'Cry havoc!!!'.

I really hope we get the C. I'd love to eventually have all the major Enterprise ships.

I'm wathcing Star Trek Voyager for the first time and have a general question for any hard-core fans.

Exactly how many shuttlecraft were originally on Voyager? They seem to burn through half a dozen shuttles each season. Did they really have 40 or 50 shuttles in storage? I know they built the Delta Flyer (each season Voyager gets a new set!) but how many extra transporters, warp cores, etc. do they have laying about? There isn't enough power for food replicators but enough to bang out a new shuttlecraft each week?

Wish I had been keeping count from the start of Season 1, but I'm finishing season 5 now so it's too late to go back.

It's one of those things that came up a lot, back in the day. LOL. The endless supply of Shuttlecraft. The general feeling is they just replicated new ones, but yes, that doesn't make a HUGE amount of sense from a resource standpoint.

The shuttle thing always reminded me of Space:1999 and their Eagles. The always lost 1 or 2 every episode. But, they did save they had foundries underground that could build replacements. With Voyager's lack of replicator power, it never made sense.

They also blew through the entire inventory of Photon Torpedoes they took in Caretaker in the first season alone.

You're right! They said they only had 54 torpedoes (or thereabouts) in Season 1, but by the end of Season 5 they're firing off volleys of torpedoes all the time.

I'll just pretend that I'm not keeping count.

This weekend it's off to Season 6. Wonder what new set Paramount will let them build for this season? They got the Delta Flyer for Season 5 but then haven't used it much. They did pull the old French bar out of storage that we haven't seen since Season 2 ended and they built the "swimsuit paradise" set for Season 3.

Re-watching The Motion Picture at work tonight. Despite the pacing problems, and the awful disco uniforms, this is a really good movie. I love the visual of Spock crying about V'Ger not being able to understand anything being pure logic.

'Is this all that I am? Is there nothing more?'

Quite a fascinating story overall. The fast forward button on my DVD player helps with my enjoyment too. That flyby of the Enterprise at the beginning is not as boring at 16 times normal speed. I have seen this movie aboot a dozen times. And it's good to revisit the more cerebral story style now and then.

Voyager's lack of replicator power never made a lick of sense, considering they had full access to the Holodeck. Now I'm not an expert in Star Trek Technobabble, but given they had the power to keep the Holodeck running pretty much non-stop you'd think they could jury rig the tech-tech to the doodongle and BOOM! Industrial Strength Replicator.

Honestly, that would have solved a lot of the issues with the show. Another thing that would have solved a lot of the issues with the show would have been writers who actually cared.

Re-watching The Motion Picture at work tonight. Despite the pacing problems, and the awful disco uniforms, this is a really good movie. I love the visual of Spock crying about V'Ger not being able to understand anything being pure logic.

'Is this all that I am? Is there nothing more?'

Quite a fascinating story overall. The fast forward button on my DVD player helps with my enjoyment too. That flyby of the Enterprise at the beginning is not as boring at 16 times normal speed. I have seen this movie aboot a dozen times. And it's good to revisit the more cerebral story style now and then.

It's my favorite of the films, and I wish there'd me MORE cerebral trick..it really lacking, especially in the past several years.